Quotes
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Romana: Shall we take the lift or fly?The 4th Doctor: Let's not be ostentatious.
Romana: All right. Let's fly then.
The 4th Doctor: That would look silly. We'll take the lift. Come on.
"For a portrait of a Time Lady, that's not at all a bad likeness." ~ The Fourth Doctor
Romana: I wonder why he did it like that? The face of the clock is fractured.
The 4th Doctor: Ha. Almost like a crack in time. A crack in time.
"I think there's a matter with time. It must be because I've crossed the time fields so often. No one there seemed to notice anything. You and I exist in a special relationship to time, you know. Perpetual outsiders." ~ The Fourth Doctor
"I don't care. Let them gawp, let them gape. What do I care." ~ The Fourth Doctor
"Do you mean an alien's trying to steal the Mona Lisa?" ~ Romana
"I say, what a wonderful butler. He's so violent." ~ The Fourth Doctor
"Ah. Well, you're a beautiful woman, probably." ~ The Fourth Doctor
Countess: My dear, I don't think he's as stupid as he seems.
Scarlioni: My dear, nobody could be as stupid as he seems.
The 4th Doctor: Ah. Duggan, what are you doing? For heavens sake, that's a Louis Quinze.
Duggan: But you're not going to let them lock us up
The 4th Doctor: Just behave like a civilised guest.
"That's all I need. Locked in a cellar, no way out, and two raving lunatics for company." ~ Duggan
The 4th Doctor: Now, while we're here, why don't you and I find out how they're going to steal it and why. Or are you just in it for the thumping?
Duggan: I'm in it mainly to protect the interests of the art dealers who employ...
The 4th Doctor: I know, but mainly for the thumping.
"Yes, that's your philosophy, isn't it. If it moves, hit it." ~ The Fourth Doctor
"Duggan! Duggan, why is it that every time I start to talk to someone, you knock him unconscious?" ~ The Fourth Doctor
Romana: You've got a pretty cynical attitude to life, haven't you, Duggan.
Duggan: Well, when you've been around as long as I have. How old are you, anyway?
Romana: Hundred and twenty five.
Duggan: What?
Duggan: Hells bells!
Romana: That's what it sounds like. Let's go!
"I don't know. I don't seem to be able to help myself. There I am, just walking along minding my own business and pop! I'm on a different planet or even a different time. But enough of my problems. What are you doing here?" ~ The Fourth Doctor
Romana: You should go into partnership with a glazier. You'd have a truly symbiotic working relationship.
Duggan: What?
Romana: I'm just pointing out that you break a lot of glass.
"The centuries that divide me shall be undone. I don't like the sound of that." ~ The Fourth Doctor
"Come on, let's get back to the chateau where at least you can thump somebody." ~ Romana
Duggan: You don't seriously believe all this time travel nonsense, do you?
Romana: Do you believe wood comes from trees?
Duggan: What do you mean?
Romana: It's just a fact of life one's brought up with.
Duggan: You're mad. You're insane. You're inhuman!
Scarlioni: Quite so. When I compare my race to yours, human, I take the word inhuman as a great compliment.
"The silent type, eh? I once knew a boy like you. Never said a word, very taciturn. Well, I said to him, there's no point in talking if you've got nothing to say. Did well in the end, though. Name of Shakespeare. Ever read any Shakespeare?" ~ The Fourth Doctor
" ~ The Fourth DoctorAh, Count. Hello. I wonder if you could spare me a moment of your time. Romana, hello, how are you? I see the Count's roped you in as a lab assistant. What are you making for him? A model railway? Gallifreyan egg timer? I hope you're not making a time machine. I shall be very angry." ~ The Fourth Doctor
The 4th Doctor: Count, that sort of blackmail won't work because I know what the consequences will be if you get what you wanted. I can't let you fool about with time.
Scarlioni: What else do you ever do?
"Is no one interested in history?" ~ The Fourth Doctor
"From? Well I guess the best way to find out where you come from, is to figure out where you are going, and then work backwards." ~ The Fourth Doctor
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Trivia
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Science fiction elements aside, "City of Death" centers around one of the Artworld's great whodunit: The Mona Lisa theft of 1911. This is sometimes called the Mona Lisa conspiracy. It's been used by a number of television dramas over time, in one form or another.
Douglas Adams, who wrote the script for "City of Death" under a pseudonym, reworked the story into his novel "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detection Agency", which also used characters and situations from his uncompleted Dr Who serial "Shada".
David Fisher and Graham Williams also worked on the script, which was broadcast with the name of David Agnew as the writer.
David Fisher's original version of the storyline involved an alien Sephiroth named Scarlioni, who has been scattered throughout Earth's history after the explosion of his time bubble. One of his fragments, Captain Tancredi, is forcing Leonardo da Vinci to paint duplicate copies of the Mona Lisa in 1508. In 1928 Paris another fragment, Count Scarlioni (inspired by "Bulldog" Drummond's original archnemesis, Carl Peterson), is financing Professor Kerensky's time experiments by equipping his lover, Baroness Heidi von Kleist, with a device which enables her to cheat at roulette in Monte Carlo. The Doctor and Romana ultimately discover that Scarlioni is trying to journey back to prehistoric Earth and prevent the time bubble explosion in order to save his fellow Sephiroth, who are dying from an illness he believes is caused by radiation from the accident. However, the Doctor discovers that the culprit is actually the common cold virus, to which the Sephiroth have no immunity. Scarlioni agrees to let the time bubble accident happen, in order to spark the genesis of life on Earth.
The story was originally set in Las Vegas, when a gambling sub-plot was more prominent. Another subplot that was dropped involved the artist sketching Romana in the café. He was originally a much more prominent figure called Bourget, who was in league with Scarlioni.
Working titles for this story included The Gamble With Time, The Time of the Sephiroth and Curse of the Sephiroth.
This is one of the few serials in the original run of the series never to have been novelized through publisher Target Books. Target approached author Douglas Adams on several occasions, but Adams (by then a bestselling author) was unwilling to work for the modest advance Target was offering to pay; Target, for their part, were unwilling to offer Adams a higher advance, for fear that other authors would demand more. Adams also refused to allow Target to have another author adapt his story. Adams also penned "Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet: Part One (1978)" and the uncompleted serial "Shada", neither of which have been novelized for the same reasons.
Voted by fans as the fifth greatest Doctor Who (1963) serial in Outpost Gallifrey's poll in 2003 to celebrate 40 years of the series.
This story was placed in the Top Five Stories in "Doctor Who" Magazine's 40th Anniversary Poll.
City of Death was the first Doctor Who to be shot outside the UK. Various scenes were shot on location in Paris, France. Tom Baker found filming in Paris to be a very different experience to what he was used to in the UK where crowds would gather to watch the filming and meet the stars. Doctor Who was not shown in France at the time and so the cast and crew were largely ignored.
The original intention was to recreate Paris in a studio. It was John Nathan-Turner who pointed out that it would be much easier and cheaper to actually film on location.
K9 is completely absent from "City of Death" due to the logistical difficulties of operating the prop while filming in Paris.
A shot beginning with a close-up of the Doctor and Romana which would pull back to reveal them standing high atop the Eiffel Tower had to be abandoned when the special lens rented for the sequence from a Spanish firm could not be made to fit the BBC camera.
Lalla Ward devised Romana's schoolgirl costume in City of Death in conjunction with Tom Baker, recalling, "I thought it would be fun to wear something that little girls probably hated wearing because it might cheer them up... I didn't bank on the fact that I'd also get loads of letters from their fathers saying 'Cool School uniform!'". Seeing her costumes as an important part in creating the role of Romana, Ward clashed with costume designer Doreen James, rejecting the silver catsuit James had designed for her for the story.
Douglas Adams and Michael Hayes make 'Hitchcock' appearances in the story; Adams is seen as a man having a drink in a bar, while Hayes is the shifty-looking man wearing a cloth cap and carrying a metal case who exits the train at Boissière Metro Station after the Doctor and Romana.
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Links (Watch on DailyMotion.com)
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Doctor Who: City of Death (Story 105) DVD is available at Amazon.com,
or watch via streaming at Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu Plus.
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